It is nothing to my credit I should have been compelled to have jumped several rods through the air between two trees, for my mental sagacity had not got so far as that. I felt humiliated beyond expression. Never before had I been compelled to call on the forces of Nature to help me out of a difficulty. It would be the last time. There was consolation in that. However, it was best as it was, for there might have been a question whether or not climbing the trees would have been leaving the path. Nevertheless, I turned from the scene in a state of complete disgust, absolutely forgetting I had had not a morsel to eat since the prior morning. This was brought back with all its pain by the sight of the style of a house with which I had become familiar. I suffered not this time my natural diffidence to retard me from entering without ceremony and taking possession of the only chair at the table. Neither could I resist taking a short nap after the meal, for I had slept anything but comfortably; and should not have slept at all but from complete exhaustion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XXII _I continue to proceed and outwit an immense giant; escape from a herd of angry cattle; scale a water fence; meet a friendly spider._ WHEN I arose from my siesta I observed the dame in charge of the caravansary was less dumb than the others I had met, and that her countenance bore evidence of the passing over it of a late smile or two. The faces of the others were so placid a really pleasant emotion would have slipped up on them had it attempted to cross their countenances. These were my meditations as I passed along my way. My late experiences had not dimmed my ardor in the least, and the refreshment both of victuals and of sleep had restored me to a very vigorous condition. So high-spirited was I that when I came to an immense giant sitting on a stump by the pathside, I was not in the least abashed or flustered. He was forming a toothpick by the aid of a pocket knife which would have answered me quite well for a sword, and he glanced at me quite merrily out of the corner of his eye. Now, while I was not a giant in stature, I was not by any means this man’s inferior in real strength, as will be shown by the following incident. I bade him good-day, and after conversing with him for a time I made as if to go on, when he said I should have to kill him first. I told him it was against the rules to kill any living thing within the enclosure, and his reply was quite to the point; for he said I would never pass on then.